


Emmène Moi

by Bana_Bhuidseach



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Light Angst, Modern AU, POV Morgana (Merlin), Paranormal Romance, Protective Merlin, Witch Daenerys Targaryen, Witch Yara Greyjoy, Witches, witchy au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-04-24 18:26:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19178938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bana_Bhuidseach/pseuds/Bana_Bhuidseach
Summary: "Take me away, beyond the crowds and over the valleys and mountains. Let us flee into an old dream world.Let us run side by side with the ancient creatures of myth. We shall build a home and let our spirits rise."





	1. Mango & Bergamot

“Would you like anything to accompany your drink?” The guy behind the counter wears a charming smile that combines with his cherubic curls and sweet eyes.

 “No, thank you,” I say even if indecisive still looking at the board filled with delicious sugary options, handing over my money to pay.

 “That would be all. It will be by the counter when it is ready.”

 

I nod whispering a silent “thank you” and sit over one of the corner tables. Time ticks by, I get my beverage a hot cup of mango and bergamot tea, it smells sweet and leaves a bitter aftertaste, to my surprise, it is accompanied by a cute ginger cookie in the shape of a flower. It lightens my day just like a sweet lucky charm. I start writing on my notebook, taking notes of the past couple of days, they’ve been particularly white and numb for me. I feel out of place and that just causes my brain to disconnect through the routine. The last couple of months have been hard in a wat, I thought I could build up a home, going back to my roots. Yet it all seems fake and stagnant. I miss my friends, miss the nights out we spent together, watching movies or collecting crystals, I miss the market days where artisans gathered around to sell beautiful trinkets. Missandei’s laugh and the way her hair shone. She promised to come for a long visit. I play a recent voice note she sent over and over.

 

_Cannot wait for the summer, we found some weird sea glass, I’ll take you some… *laugh* goodness Dae you should see our new shop, it is splendid all I ever longed for. Customers just keep pouring in. *Someone else’s voice asking the price of a potion* Promise we will talk this weekend?_

 

The happiness in her voice keeps radiating a burst of strong sunshine I tend to miss during the rainy days. Even if I love the weather, the raging storms. Sometimes I miss the heat and the sand. I miss running through it and then soaking with sea water.

 

“What do I long for?” I mumble over my cup taking a sip. The pages of my journal are empty before me…

 I try to declutter my brain for things that have passed. Trying to set up new goals for the new moon that is coming up.Something wakes and shifts within my bag, I pass my finger over a scaly head while mumbling “I told you to stay at home” A tiny shriek answers me back assuring me that will never happen. My lips give away a smile.

 

Three heads pop out and I look around assuring no one is looking my way. Thankfully there is no one. It is not strange to see a witch with her familiars around, yet I do not feel comfortable with people knowing. Three dragons, after all, aren’t as common, fewer ones that can change its size at will. Every now and then a fear of them deciding to go full scale and roam the city leaves my mouth dry.

 

I give them the rest of the cookie and leave the café.

 “See you next month” the guy behind waves at me, I nod and give him a sweet smile.

 “See you…” Probably, only if I manage to stay at all.

 

I get out into the roaming streets, a slight drizzle falls over te cobbled street, people are either running seeking shelter or taking out umbrellas. Some witches protect themselves with a water-proof spell. I just let the water fall around me, without quite touching me if I do not desire it to. Most of the times I prefer not to use magic and enjoy the crisp drops drench my hair and clothes. Yet today I must go back to work, no use to get there resembling a fountain.

 

The Wyrd shop lies at the end of the main street, downhill.I hurry up just in time to see the owner just starting to put things on her bag while attending a customer. The Wyrd is a nice cozy shop, where all esoteric things can be found, it is not only restricted to witchcraft but other practices. Humans and creatures gather in there and share knowledge or particular interests.

 

The only rule is no conspicuous demonstrations of magic since my employer doesn’t appreciate calling attention. “It is a magical place we live in, yet that doesn’t mean we got the right to go around showing off, wasting our powers away.” She scorns every time she sees someone overusing their abilities. “The gods didn’t give us such favors for us to abuse them.” She particularly dislikes those who take advantage and manage to get whatever they desire. “Undisciplined” She mutters to herself most of the time after catching someone trying to disappear and steal away items from the shop. More often than not those leave with a curse or two.

 

I like my boss and his husband are kind. They just do not comprehend what am I doing, since I do not understand it entirely either. They hired me on a whim because they had liked my energy and gifted me rose quartz to hang around my neck, so I could start learning to appreciate myself and think on ahead.

 

The store is quiet for quite some time. I dust the altars and the bookshelves. Gathering the dust into tiny pouches and store them within a long wooden box. The three dragons roam around and fly up into the warmth of the iron chandelier. I take out my notebook again drawing sigils for protection, luck and resolve. Then mark the pages they are on with Spergularia I found near a stone wall on my way. The purple flower is still wet and stains the pages.

 

“Hmm... Should have thought of that…” The ring bells softly and steps thud their way in.

 “Theon would you wait for me.” I turn there is a boy with ginger hair, seemingly stopping at mid-step. Then a someone else joins in hugging him by the neck in a playful manner. I look up at the roof, the dragons are fast asleep near the candles. I bite my lip.

 “Welcome”

 

Thy guy replies with a shy thanks and starts perusing around. The other figure takes off a heavy woolen hood smirks at me like we share a secret and goes directly to the scrying bowls.

 

“Which one would you recommend?” She paces around them eagerly with a concentrated gaze. “Since you broke mine…” I am about to say I didn’t do such a thing but immediately recognize she isn’t speaking to me. I shake my head and scoff a little.

 

The boy looks at them and shrugs. “You shouldn’t be asking me…” He points at me.

 

I go around the old desk and step closer to them “Which material would you prefer your bowl to be made of?” I arch my eyebrows. The girl changes her pinning death glare, to the damned smirk again. This time I gave it back and tilt my chin.

 

“Iron..” Did he break an iron scrying bowl? What were they practicing? Apparently, my questions reflect all over my face. “He used it to create a potion when specifically I told him not to” There is a challenging tilt in her stance.

 

“Hmm alright then I have something just for you, but it is at the back… would you like to accompany me?” I stare at her brown eyes and find myself fixated. They are a gentle brown, they are penetrating, strong and comforting, like worn leather.

 “Guide the way?” She steps closer and I turn.

 “Let me get the keys”

 “I do not think you would need them” 

I point at the sign of NO UNNECESSARY OR EXTRAVAGANT ACTS OF MAGIC. “Pretty sign” she crosses her arms “did you put it”

 “No..”

“Then who would know?” She walks to the sign.

 “Do not make her lose her job…” The guy mumbles “for just your flicker impatience”

 “Oh brother’ she turns to him “I do not intend on causing her any trouble, I am pretty sure no one would notice we would open a foolish door”

 He fidgets.

 “Do not worry” I say already at the desk a set of heavy keys dangling from my fingers “It is not like I would listen to her” I smile, he smiles too and the strange woman chuckles and gives her brother a pat on the back that is a bit too harsh.

 The back room is moist and covered in dust, Aleida, lets it accumulate “We must let the energy concentrate and gather up… that way our artifacts won’t dry up, nor our good fortune ever fails” Her husband also assures that this way with the mix of different properties we get nourished, not only from the dust but from the world as well. So I try to walk without disturbing the room.

 “I am Yara by the way…” She seems to be copying everything I do. At least she seems to hold some amount of respect. I like her name it drawls in my mind letter by letter. It leaves a complicated sensation once it lefts off, like a command or an invocation. A picture of thunder over sea hits my mind, and just like that will always appear if I remember her name. “Won’t tell me yours?”

 “Giving off names is a dangerous thing… don’t you think?”

 

The shelve with the cauldrons and bowls appears before us, looming tall and dangerous, some of them dangle from the roof, clacking with some secret wind current.

 

“The ones on the top are made of Iron…” I climb up a chair and reach for the most rustic one, the shape is certainly capricious, it looks old and worn out, yet I know it wouldn’t ever be maimed. “This one I think would suffice. You will need special ink for it though”

 

She reaches out and brushes my fingers slightly. She gives me off concentrated, reckless and imminent energy. I see her as a deep shade of blue that breaks with the recent constant white of my existence; it then changes to dark grey that swirls and clashes.

 

“And let me guess, you sell it as well?” she says with a taunting tone.

 ‘Inconveniently so, we do not” I challenge that taunt with a deep stare. “You must create it yourself…we do sell the copy of the grimoire that has the instructions though…”

 

She scoffs and I give a soft smile, she smiles back. She looks at the bowl in her hands and passes her fingertips over. I let her to it,pretending a new fascination for old apothecary flasks. She needs space. Picking your own tools is extremely personal.

 

“Alright, I will take the bowl and the book.”

 

When we get back I see that Theon is playing with Rhaegal and I let out a tiny whimper.

 “Cool familiar you got here…” So he hasn’t seen the other three…

 “Thanks, it is a tribolonotus gracilis… “I lie using the flamboyant name in hopes that the confusion of it distracts them both even further…. He squints at it… I sigh in my mind.

 “A red-eyed dragon skink?” Oh well fuck. Yara has her hands on her hips. “Weird choice for a familiar…” I take the mini dragon from Theon’s hands and place it inside my bag again. The others are nowhere to be seen… Great.

 “Well, that would be 80 pieces for the book and bowl…” I put both items in a paper bag and stamp it with a belladonna stamp. Yara nudges the shoulder of his brother and he pays, then both leave the store, not before she winks at me and says “see you later…no name” I smile.

 “Come back soon”

 

A couple of hours later the sky is raging again, the dragons are safely tucked within my coat and I step into the street. I start going back home when someone slips and collides with me. We both trip over.

 

“Oh goodness I am sorry” Yara offers me a hand, her hood is back up, no brother or paper bag on sight “Well that didn’t go as planned…” I stand up ignoring her hand for my coat has been opened and my three familiars are dangling from it all wet and complaining.

 I try to close my coat but it is too late. She just smirks…

 “What is wrong with you?!” That dumb smile fades away and she starts apologizing. 

 “I tripped over…”

 “Why were you running”

 “To catch up to you…” She seems strangely decomposed comparing to how she was earlier…

 “Well then?” I cross my arms over my chest trying to pretend a higher collectedness. 

 “I wanted to ask you out, maybe for a coffee?” She scratches the back of her head “Would you like to? Maybe right now or another day… it is fine”

 “I prefer tea…”

 She smiles at me “Well then guide the way…- she steps right next to me shifting nervously and a bit closer, she leans into my shoulder “and not worry about your dragons, I won’t tell”

 Somehow I trust in that.


	2. Mocha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wished for a cute and bit dumb chapter.

Our third coffee date.

 

Miraculously now every time my shift comes to an end, Yara appears somewhere nearby “The Wyrd” shop, sitting by a bench reading a book, trotting (wearing jeans and converse…). I like it, her sardonic smile always making me return it back. So, I do not mind her presence at all.

“I was just walking by…”

 

“It is close to Theon’s job anyway”

 

“I am just exercising…” _sure wearing jeans._

 

We just walk through the streets or the park, I tell her of my life by the beach and the desert, she tells me when she used to sail through the world with her parents. Most of the times, unfortunately,I have to hurry back to feed my dragons, so she accompanies me to the bus, then she will ask my name again.

 

“Guess!” I yell through one of the windows, sit back and let the hum of my rushing heart be calmed by the consistent movement.

 

This time:

 

I open the door of the shop to a decided, blushed face and a raised fist on mid-movement to knock.

 

“Why would you knock on a shop?”

 

“It was already closed…”

 

My breath comes into a short judgmental huff. “Alright’”

 

“Anyways I came here to complain about your recipe book, I cannot manage to create the ink properly” She lets out in a husky teasing tone, that warms the tip of my nose and ears.

 

“Really? What is exactly wrong with it? The instructions seemed to be quite explicit” In fact, they are even accompanied by drawings. “Too complicated for you?” I arch an eyebrow.

 

A deep and secretly wonderful laugh bubbles up her body, her eyes scrunch a bit as well as her nose. Today she has her hair up in half up small bun and it moves with every resonance of that laugh. I smile deeply back, feeling good.

 

“Alright, come on, in apology for my terrible sell I will invite you a coffee” her eyes focus interested. “Maybe even add some ice cream to the compensation offer” Yara with all her hard and always extremely strong personality, is actually quite fond, in a ridiculous manner of sundae served with hot caramel.

 

“Taking you on that one” she turns her step and takes my bag from my hands, hangs it over her shoulder. “Guide the way…”

 

“Would you give me that…”

 

“Nope”

 

“I told you I like to carry it”

 

“So?”

 

“So… it is my bag- I try to reach out- let me have it back” Unfortunately my height leaves me at a disadvantage. She tries to pat my head, but a death glare stops her hand.

 

We walk through alleyways that shorten the path. Through stairs and moist walls we march.

 

“Seriously though, if you need help with the recipe I could… well help”

My words derail from suggesting coming over her place.

 

“Oh, I do need help!- she raises her arms dramatically up in the air and I roll my eyes- what?! Theon is the good one with such stuff but he refuses to do it for me... -Her lip curls in a funny way when she is “irritated” at her brother- maybe by the end of the week you should come by?”

 

“Sure, text me the address”

 

“I’ll pick you up” With her chin up and squared shoulders she looks so smug. Which could be kinda cute...

 

We reach the shop just in time before the rain hits and it gets overcrowded. Over tons of complains and snapping of umbrellas we order. “One mocha and a hot chocolate please…” She nudges me on the ribs with there elbow “and a double sundae…” 

 

“With extra caramel please”

 

“Sure thing” The guy smiles at us “ please take a sit, I will be right there with you”

 

While I pay and Yara finds a seat he stretches his neck “fourth time this month” his smile tells me he is glad that I come by more often. That I coming accompanied.I just hum in response. I hadn’t given much thought to it. Would I stay? And keep coming? I sit over a bench next to my new friend still pondering over it. There are more splotches of colors and sensations lately on my recollections and experiences and I smile.

 

“Earth to the nameless one” calloused hand waves in front of me. “Are you okay?”

 

I snap out of it and take the hand away. “Do not do that…”

 

“Hey, I do not want you going off, what if suddenly you set something on fire.”

 

“Doesn’t work like that…”

 

“How would I know, you are not very communicative about your powers.”

 

I take a deep breath and give a smug smile to her. Thunder rumbles through the sky along with a gigantic lighting flash. She doesn’t jump but holds the edge of the table a bit too tight. “Trust me I have it under control”

 

She gives me a grin.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing… you are …”

 

“Terrifying? Wonderful? A marvel?” Most of the times I try not to be narcissistic or to brag but with her, I feel comfortable enough to be a bit cocky

 

She snorts “Cute” I frown, considering letting a lighting bolt strike her right here, yet a pretty waitress interrupts us with our drinks and the ice-cream” Yara’s mocha has a heart of chocolate on the top of the whipped cream.

 

“Enjoy” the girl smiles especially at her.

 

“Sure, thanks” Yara gives her a kind smile. I try to focus and get lost into my hot chocolate foam. Drinking it a bit fast and getting my tongue burnt because of it, then set down the cup, when the girl leaves. Another rumbly laugh.

 

“Now what” I half whine half protest.

 

She points over her lip and tip of the nose “You ‘ve got a .. Hmm “ another tiny laugh.

 

Great, I am covered on foam.

 

The evening goes y quite pleasantly. The amount of people streams back to normal.I take out my journal and scribble down some stuff, try to draw Yara’s hand around the coffee mug, fail because coincidentally she starts tapping her fingers and then puts it over the pages.

 

I throw one of the decorative coffee beans at her, and we start a war, making a mess of the table, tumbling cold coffee as well. On silly instinct, I clean it up with magic before anyone notices.

 

“So no use of magic for silly things huh?”

 

“Sometimes I cannot control it. Only if I am within the shop.” Before questions arise about why I cannot control it. I get a call. Missandei.

 

“DAE!!, where have you been?” I notice on the screen I have multiple lost calls and two messages. _How…_

 

Yara gives me a sardonic smile telling me she already listening to well part of my name.

 

“Sorry I was.. Am with a friend”

 

“Replacing us so fast already?!” Her tone is full of her bubbly laugh.

 

“Never!” I pretend to be offended “so when are you coming over? “

 

“Soon!! I promise in a couple more of weeks then you won’t be able to get rid off me”

 

A smile crosses my lips “Promise?”

 

“Promise…so how is it over there, still dull? Who is the friend? How did you meet? Are they hot?” I blush covering my phone with the other hand and praying to the goddess none of this is being listened.

 

“I will tell you all later okay?”

 

“Okay... I will call you later. By the way, we need more of your charms for the shop, we ran out”

 

“And here I thought you called me because you miss me..”

 

“Always missing you Dae..” Then she hangs up. I pretend to take the last sip to my empty mug and play with the edge of it.

 

“So, Dae... Is that a nickname or a short version of something more or that is it?” Yara sits closer to me

 

“What disappointed?” She arches an eyebrow “Alright the whole of it is Daenerys”

 

She sits back and looks up “Daenerys” She seems to roll it over her mouth, tasting it going around the corners, crevices, and swirls of my name, slowly exploring. For a second I wonder what else could see explore so thoroughly. She looks at me with a raised eyebrow and deep mischief. “So Nery..”

 

I groan “ please don’t”

 

“Come on!! Your friend has a cute name for you I get to have one too!”

 

“Under what grounds?”

 

“The ones I impose right this moment”

 

I let out an exasperated sigh. We order more and I try to keep drawing.

 

“So what do you do normally?” There is curiosity in her voice.

 

“Nothing much... Work, cast spells, celebrate the sabbaths, try to decide what to do with my life” I keep drawing, adding details to the knuckles and her rings. “You?”

 

“Dying to explore new land, and some other chores.”

 

“Then why don’t you?” She simply shrugs “I need a companion and my brother has already settled here, he likes it I cannot judge him. It is a nice place.”

 

“Bit dull for me really…” I murmur it but she hears it. It is strange to finally admit it. The place is dull. Nice with nice people. Free witches and what not. But I feel bored.

 

Just then the gives a tiny smile and stretches or seems to be reaching out for something behind me. Then her arm stops, is she having a strain? Then she reaches for a lit candle from the other table.

 

“Felt a major urge for a candle?”She is grabbing it wrong, by the heated part. “Aren’t you getting burned”

 

“Ah no”

 

“Sure?”

 

“Yeah why?” her tone is a bit high pitched and she seems to be looking at her arm like she can’t believe what she is doing.

 

“Why do you need a candle for?” she sets it over the table and shrugs.

 

“Maybe we can go on the adventure together…” she is taken by surprise and gives a weird cough

 

“Sure..” I arch an eyebrow slowly “do you have any balm against burnt skin perchance”

 

“You need cold water”

 

She walks to the bathroom mumbling under her breath.

 

“That wasn’t so smooth..” The same waitress from before brings the drinks and whispers in my ear with an apparent knowing  smile.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Oh, nothing” she leaves the mugs and walks to the counter “ dense.”

 

_Rude._


	3. Fruit Scones

Sometimes I repeated to myself a quote I had read somewhere, couldn't remember where precisely. But it had become a reassuring mantra.

 

_Always my fallback is,_

_I’m gonna move to a poor -_ or was it small?- _town and open a scone shop_

 

It was always a nice plan to seem to strive to, more so, since I felt most of the times like I didn’t have any. My friends had gotten their shop back home, or what used to be home, I came here. Trying to find something… my roots? My background? Me? It felt strange to walk by my old childhood home every time I went to work, well if I did so from my tiny apartment, yet I would never avoid it or change the route. I could do so, just keep going right instead of left for just one street and the whole thing wouldn’t materialize in front of me. Yet I wouldn’t bring myself to do so.

 

Even now coming back home, my feet took a turn and walked by the house, like it was a beacon of light and I a craving moth. I would sometimes stand in front of it, looking at its pale yellow walls, the front one already crowned with ivy. I would stare at the window that used to be my parents' room, the sill is filled with some tiny objects I cannot discern completely. The house gives away forlorn energy, every time I pass by the white of normalcy gets mixed with a light lilac almost grey color.

I remembered when I was a child the color was an entrancing purple, it sometimes flickered and changed to lighter mauve or harsh violet, depending on the days and the way my family was acting. I had always felt cozy there. I have barely any memories of my mother or brothers but a few scents, few visuals. Like playing music and dancing around the living room, or my mom casting a spell, her worn-out tarot cards being turned with great energy emanating from her hands.

I remember my brothers playing pranks on one another or me, making weird experimental potions. I also remember when my oldest brother went away and disappeared, How my mom stopped reading the cards.

How Viserys would play soft music in his room and invite me to dance, but quietly. We would listen to mother play the piano in such a hopeless manner. We would go out into the garden to tend the herbs, the flowers and such…

I remember that my powers awoke then… I also remember with a chill to my spine the first nasty look my brother gave me when the rain started to drop softly over the flower beds and a ray of sunshine touched velvet petals… after that, he changed.

Even when we moved out and mother seemed to be okay, until she wasn’t and she left to submerging into the waves of the sea.

 

The house is an unbearable sight. Yet it made me a promise of allusive happiness.

 

I go back to my apartment thinking go gray days, the clouds accumulate and I hope it isn’t because of me but just the moody weather from around here.

 

The tote bag by my shoulder today is unbearably heavy, with all types of tools to celebrate Litha, in two weeks. Missandei would finally get here and we will rejoice on the longest day as best we know. For now, I shall prepare me and my baby dragons. The three of them fly over me a little bigger than when I take them out within my bag. They are almost the size of a Maine-coon cat.

 

“Hello there darlings”

I pet each on the head and direct myself to the kitchen with them on my tail. I leave the bag over the counter, decided I shall eat something first.

 

I check my phone. Two texts from my best friend, one from her boyfriend, two missed calls from an unknown number probably my brother whom I will just ignore since I’ve blocked countless of other numbers.

 

A couple from Yara.

 

**Hi**

***Attachment*** (A selfie of her and the weird ink she made)

**This still is not working.**

 

**Remember I will go pick you up. At work I suppose…**

**Or is it your home, can’t remember.**

 

**Anyways how are you?**

 

I smile at the screen while grabbing a grape from the fridge, it pops sweetly and acidic into my mouth. Then start typing.

 

**Alo,**

**That looks really bad… what did you do?!**

 

 **I guess work is a better option… and I am okay,** I hesitate to write the rest but ending up typing almost as if I couldn’t help myself but to be less ambiguous.

**A bit down to be honest. Overwhelmed. You?**

Then I add a selfie too of me sitting by the couch making a pouty face. It looks ridiculous but I send it anyway…

 

**Wanna talk about it?**

**You look really tired, still cute though.. Ah, fine….I guess I miss you.**

 

We hadn’t met for a couple of days, how could she miss me? But as I asked myself that aweird feeling recoiled within my chest. We text for a while about everything and nothing. (No she hadn’t tried to replace any of the ingredients, the cauldron was not contaminated, she wanted one of my raspberry scones) I pace around my apartment chewing on some bread. Drogon playing around my feet.

 

I put myself to the endeavor of baking, ingredients are taken out, music blasting off to block the feelings about my house, the doubts about staying, pre-heating oven on course, my fingertips taming the cold butter to merge with the flour, the raspberries, sour cherries, and berries taint my fingertips. Viserion steals a couple of them and flies off. After the tray is on the oven, I can finally breathe, the kitchen is messy with my work and I do not mind, a second and third tray awaits me.

 

I let the window open since now it is late at night, let my lovely beasts roam outside. With a spell for some clouds to cover them, they relish around the moon.


	4. Four Leaved African Violet

The day was slow. Aleida was putting up back the protecting spells, retracing the sigils over the door frame. They were carved into the wood yet she still passes a new coat with chalk, to renovate their vigor.

The dragons are hiding underneath the main altar enjoying some treats my boss brought them. I tried to rearrange the new load of tarot cards, the witch that had illustrated each card by hand was taking a cup of tea accompanied by one of the many scones I baked. She doesn’t seem to be bothered by my familiars, not anymore at least. Once she had to come here by the time my shift should be done, instead she came in earlier, all scandalous and merry, maybe even drunk. By the time she opened the door all three of them were flying above her or landing over her shoulder. She had let out a thunderous shriek.

I have tried to be more careful with them since, so the accident wouldn’t repeat. If there weren’t any clients they could go around free but if not, they had to get inside the backroom or Aleida’s secret garden, the back of the store connected through it to her apartment. It was a tiny blissful space with an old stone fountain in the middle, covered in moss. Trees surrounded it as well as flowers like jasmine and violets. Birds usually bathed and fed there, unbothered even by my presence or the dragons. It was a well-positioned garden where always a ray of sunlight would fall over, they will lie there or fly around. Aleida likes seeing them there, with a tiny bit of freedom.  
I wished I could give more of it to them, more than the nights, more than the strolls within my bag.  
Every now and then I would take them into the edge of the forest and let them go for as long as they needed. With a spell made by Missandei I could always track where they were if they were in trouble or coming back home.

“The scones are really good,” Barb said and I smiled at her. “What were you thinking girl?”

I tried to shake away my morose conscience. “Nothing much…just.. Want them to be freer”

She turns to the three dragons now fast asleep. “I do not think this is a place for them…”

“No, it isn’t. Back home they will fly wherever they pleased, over the sea and the rocks and valleys. Here is harder.”

“You don’t have to hide them all the time”

Probably not. But I couldn’t trust this place entirely.

“What if someone hunts them?”

People no matter their abilities sometimes wouldn’t regard dragons with deep affection, or they would and would want them for themselves.

 

“Maybe you could protect them with a charm”

“I’’ ve been thinking on it, but I would have to ask a high priestess for the work”

At that, her face seemed to lit up. “Oh! But I have just the one…-she pauses- well no I know her brother…” the tip of her cheeks blushed a bit “she is quite powerful... Works with ancient magic…”

A warlock enters the store and the three dragons disappear out of sight, I end up organizing the decks and go straight to him while brushing past Barb I mumble “if you could get me her number I would be eternally grateful”

“More scones?”

I scoff “yes more scones, and this time I would add honey to them” I hadn’t to these since Yara is a tinge bit allergic. Learned that the hard way inviting her to tea…

“What can I help you with?” I say cheerfully. The warlock has deep black hair and watery shining blue eyes, glasses hang from his nose crookedly, and his smile is soft, shy. He smells of dust and grass. HIs color is a soft olive green. It is steady, not harsh and changing like Yara’s, or mellow like Theon’s. It resembles Missandei in its serenity.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a dragon tongue dictionary do you?”

I stutter. What does he need that for?. Could he have a dragon? Does he know something I don’t? Or has he seen mine maybe during a midnight stroll? I cough. “Well they are quite ancient and rare”

“I know. I am losing hope altogether, I have searched for one everywhere for ages”

So it has been a long time then… maybe just out of curiosity.

“If you do not mind my asking… what do you want it for?”

“Practice. I used to manage quite well before, but now -his gaze seemed lost, and suddenly those eyes looked old and tired for a second- I am a little rusty… it has been a long time” He looks around and then at me, the confusion being forced back from his stare and replaced with an almost authentic smile, not as sweet as the first one he gave,

“Oh… well”

Then Aleida breaks in “ we do have one if you would like to see it”

“Please..”

The dictionary was very simple, bound with decaying paper, painted all in red. It also wasn’t complete, the last seventy pages or so were missing. Still, that sufficed. He paid the right price and then added a couple of candles and a ring, for his friend.

I packed everything and gave it to him with a good luck spell. Trying all the time to wipe away my nervous sweat and my curiosity ever-growing.  
Until it slipped a smidge. “So what is your name?” I tried to feign a disinterest small talk kind of tone.

“Mer…-hesitation-….Emrys” then shook my hand took the packages and left.

“Nice to meet you! Come back soon!”

“A long time?” Barbara added with a sarcastic tone “ he spoke to dragons when he was two or something?”

“He may be older than what he looks like” was all Aleida responded.

“Well I want whatever he is taking”  
Aleida then patted at her back “ it might be a tinge bit more complicated my dear”

I looked as he was walking away, his nose already stuck between the pages of the dictionary almost colliding with another passerby. Then a blonde guy approached him and hugged him by the shoulders, they both stared at one another with tenderness.

“Your friend should be here any second my dear… - Aleida broke my concentration on the two boys- why don’t you take the ingredients you need and get ready?” she gives me what she may think a knowing smile and a wink.

Barbara giggles a bit.

I roll my eyes and head at the back of the store. First I look at myself in the mirror. I look disheveled at best, since I barely slept, and with a constant worry crease between my eyebrows. So I run into the garden where Rhaegal and Dragon are rolling over the grass, enjoying the sun. I splash some the fountain water over my face. And whisper to myself “may this water wash away all my worries and fatigue” I repeat it then three times and let my hair loose. The white strands fall over my eyes. I shake my head.

“You will need this child,” Aleida says she is holding an African violet.

“What for?”

“The recipe…it is incomplete…”

“Couldn’t you have said something before about it?”

“I just read it through yesterday, here” she places the pot over my hands “ you just need one leaf”

“Thanks” the plant is flowerless, strange since always all her plants are blooming.

Seeing my confusion she says. “This one is new… for your friend only”

The bell rings and there are footsteps. Her footsteps. My skin prickles and I run to the store. She has already been attacked by Barbara who is holding her face between her palms trying to read her.

“Oh so strong… “ “You certainly will have a very pleasant future.”

Yara’s eyes scream for help so I run to her with my bag dangling and the dragons within it. Pull her arm and take her out of Barb’s grasp.

“Have fun kids!” she yells

“Who is she?” Yara whispers

“Just a friend of Aleida’s, she is a good seer, sorry if she had no boundaries”

“Oh it is alright I enjoy no boundaries” I stomp her foot lightly.

She pretends to wince in pain “you look pretty today, by the way, I like the hair down”

I hadn’t braided it back… my hands already jumping to tie it back in a ponytail at least, I’ve always felt vulnerable with it down.

“Nery come on! Leave art like that”

I arch an eyebrow considering to make true my threat of striking her with thunder. “So are we walking aimlessly? Or would you care to tell me into which direction go?”

“Leave your hair down and I will tell you…”

Since I do not make a move to tie it back she takes me by the hand which makes me blush but since she can’t see me walking in front it doesn’t matter.

-

“I hate this damned car” she grumbles for the fourth time since she picked me up. “Why did my bother had to change it!”

And for the fourth time, I just tried to not laugh. The car, in my opinion, had potential. It was a pickup that inconveniently for Yara was a pretty ostentatious shade of yellow. It was old and sweet looking, yet sturdy.

“I think it suits him” I finally dared say… “besides why do you complain at least he borrowed it to you”

She scoffs and bites at her nails, then turns up the volume trying to drown out the sound of the tires fighting back against the cobbled path. When she complains the tone of her voice turns a bit sharper and her accent increments. Which I find extremely entertaining. When she realizes I am turning purple from holding back, then she laughs and I explode. "Would you care to explain what is so funny?"

"You..." I cannot explain further and keep laughing. She keeps complaining but just to make fun of herself, exaggerating her tones and words.

 

By the time we got to her place the cursed thing (the car) turned into just this thing and I came to realize their house was quite far away almost all the other opposite side from the store…

“By the way what is the plant for?”

“Hmm well, apparently it is necessary for the scrying ink you are trying to create…”

She looks ghost at that moment. “Are you serious?”

“Hey, you just need one leaf!” I try to sound like it is not a big deal, but the fact that she has been trying to make it for several weeks, just to realize one key ingredient was missing from the recipe could be quite terrible.

She groans and mumbles unintelligible things. We hop down the car, say hi to Theon and enter. Yara just keeps saying a fucking leaf for the quarter of an hour or more.

The place inside is simple and rustic. Quite practical and a bit industrial. Rough. Like them.

We set to work, and I finally understand her frustration looking at the plant, the whole thing takes hours of concoction, we watch a movie, she eats the scones, when her brother asks for one she refuses to him, but I give him a bag of them, to which she whines like a little baby. Then they both play with my familiars out in their garden and I watch them.

Then finally we add one leaf out of the five it possesses.

"It will turn into muck once more" The whole thing does look quite grey instead of black.  
But slowly its real color spreads from the center and its heavy consistency loses some density turning into something as fluid as water. Then it starts moving to create flourishes and other shapes. Yara screams in excitement.

“There now the four-leaved African violet is yours…”

“Do you think it will bloom”

“That depends entirely up to you …” She places it next to a tiny fern by the window and I think of Emrys and his dictionary. If he knows about dragons maybe he could help me. 


End file.
